It had been three months since the end of the Covenant-Human war, three months since Cortana and John-117 had been closed off from their home world, Earth, after destroying the over religious zealots of the Covenant, and the horrible, infectious beings of biomass, the Flood. Now, the Dawn's remaining sensors were picking up a planet. Cortana had been able to get the sole reactor on the back end of the ship to work, it provided little power, but power was power.
She was inside the broken Dawn's remaining system, going over limited data banks while on standby. She had sent a distress beacon out three months ago, and still no reply. She knew it might even take years, but if she could save the man she had come to have feelings for, she'd wait. The planet, she could see it now. It was a deep blue, and green patches dotted the surface, but mainly, a steel color covered most areas. The remaining long range scanners indicated the planet had a breathable atmosphere, and life, along with Tier-4 Tech. This was right under Earth's tech tier. This planet could prove to be their way home. She decided to do a quick check of the ship half. They were lucky and had not lost an armory in the split. They also had several HEVs and a Bumblebee.
Her 'mind' wandered to the cyro tank. Should she wake him now? Or wait a bit? Landfall was estimated to be two days at least. She decided she'd wake him from his freeze tomorrow. Going through the armory she found its stock. Four small crates of frag, napalm, smoke and plasmas grenades, C4 packs, several Lotus Anti-tank mines, an M90 shotgun, several BR-55 Rifle, two MA5B assault rifles, a SRS99D-S2 AM Sniper Rifle, and a...wait? The Dawn had been carrying a M99 Stanchion Gauss Rifle? Also there was a Galilean here, commonly referred to as a Spartan Laser.
The Stanchion was about three feet long and weighed twenty kg, with extremely high damage to targets, tens rounds per magazine and fired .21 caliber bullets. It has a max range of 4.5 km and extremely high accuracy, being semi-automatic and firing 9.3 miles per second, or fifteen thousand meters per second.
Cortana took note of the stock, also noticing decent amount of ammo for each, especially for the Stanchion which was strange. The rifle was used during the Insurrection era. Why have one on board? It didn't matter, landfall on the planet was in two days. Shutting down the systems except for the cyro tubes, she decided to rest, or well, what AIs considered rest.
The next day had come. Cortana 'awoke' from her 'rest' and decided to ready the three HEVs and the Bumblee. After readying them she checked the hangar bay, she had forgotten they had it, and several vehicles. Inside of it were four Pelicans, which were mainly used as drop ships and evac units, two Scorpion tanks, which were used for heavy jobs, a Gauss and two mongoosee, the Gauss being able to tear though most materials with easy and the mongoose being super light vehicles, both used for recon and transport mainly. She decided to load the Pelicans up with the vehicles, the machines in the bay lifting the vehicles and attaching them to the Pelican's magnetic clamps.
She moved back to the cyro bay and began the defrosting process. She had been able to close off the room and allow some air into the room. The process wasn't fun, not fun at all.
John cracked his eyes open and the first thing he say was the inside of his visor. He pushed the panel off the tube off and looked at Cortana who was waiting.
"There is enough air in here for ten minutes, long enough for you to get the heating liquids from your lungs." she replied to his look. With that he undid his olive green and battered helmet, and started coughing, a pale blue gel-like liquid coming out of his mouth. He continued to cough for two minutes until he felt that he was clear.
"Status report Cortana?" he questioned the AI, placing his helmet back on and his voice hoarse from being in cyro sleep so long and the forced coughing.
"We're a day away from landfall, we have a decent amount of supplies and vehicles, along with three HEVs and a Bumblebee. I suggest loading them up now. Also, I've uploaded the armory stock into your suits system." she answered to his question.
All he did was nod and float to a sealed door, Cortana freed it and he started kicking off the walls, towards the armory like a professional. Once he reached it he looked around, noting everything Cortana had listed. He looked at the Lotus mines and picked them up, moving towards the grenade crates with them, he opened the crates up and placed the seven mines in the crates and kicked back off the walls, towards the hangar bay. Once he reached the bay he loaded the crates onto the first Pelican and moved back to the armory, once again grabbing what he could. When he was done, all three of the Pelicans had been loaded up as had the HEVs and the Bumblebee, the Pelicans carrying the bulk of the supplies.
He moved back to the console where he slipped Cortana into the system and nodded to her hologram. She moved into the data chip and was removed from the console by John. He inserted her into the back of the olive green armor helmet with ease, her icy presence filling his mind.
"As we hit atmosphere we'll have to wait until we're clear to launch the Pelicans and HEVs, but I'm launching the Bumblebee now." she spoke to him, her voice echoing in his mind.
"OK." he replied back. The loading and readying had taken the last day and they were just caught in the planet's grav well.
"Launching Bumblebee!" A small explosion came from the Dawn's side, the Bumblebee rocketing towards a dot of green on the surface.
"Entering atmosphere! We're stable so far. We're coming to needed altitude...Launching HEVs!" The HEVs were launched with small explosions on the side of the ship, the landing procedures of the vehicles activating once their needed altitudes came.
"All Pelicans are clear! Go!" John pressed forward his Pelicans thrusters, the three remaining pelicans following as they had found a "dumb" AI in one of the HEVs who took control of the others, but after this use, he'd be destroyed because of his programming.
The Pelicans fled from the falling Frigate, the rear cameras catching the fall as it crash landed into an ocean and their armor peeling and cracking slightly as they moved though the intense heat of the hangar bay. The Pelicans located the HEVs and Bumblebees and swooped down towards them, once they had reached three hundred feet though Wilson, the "dumb" AI, 'died' and released the tanks and the mongoose before completely leaving them.
The Pelican crash landed, supplies scattering as the ramp fell open. Externally there was no damage except some dents and some marks, along with the cracks and paint peeling. The supplies though were spilled around the ships, which was mostly ammo, all the guns and grenades had been loaded into the Bumblebee. He landed his Pelican, even though it had been through battles the gray hull was intact with only some dents and burn marks, with the now stripped off paint and slightly cracks.
John exited the Pelican via access ramp and moved to the small mongoose. The Scorpions because of their size and bulk were fine but he was worried about the geese. He inspected it, graciously the only one of the super light recon vehicles was destroyed, one still usable.
The new world was just entering Twilight, and John had food and water, along with the green, flower shaped Bumblebee that could be his shelter. He moved to the severely damaged HEVs and started to drag them to the Bumblebee. Twenty minutes later the HEVs were surrounding the Bumblebee, looking like makeshift guards. He hopped into a Scorpion and moved it towards the Bumblebee, placing it behind the escape pod, forming a small vehicle depot behind the pod. He did the same for the other Scorpion, the Gauss-hog, and the still usable Mongoose. But the destroyed goose he dragged to the side of the pod, leaving it there.
It had been three months but so far, they had found a planet, had water, food, and other supplies, now though it was time to retire to a bed and well, the Bumblebee didn't have one, but did have comfy seats. He lay down on one after locking the pods door, and slipped into a peaceful sleep, he knew that because of his training, any noise breaking the lock or moving a vehicle would wake him. Tomorrow he would go exploring and try to find something, more then likely there would be parties to his site and the crash site of the Dawn also. On the floor and cockpit of the pod was his supplies and on the seats was a lightly sleeping John-117.
